I went to sleep feeling raw and disturbed but at the same time overwhelmed with human passion, energy and our ability to communicate through the written word. I never knew much about Angelou’s life until last night. I watched Still I Rise, a documentary about her life and work…and it was an insight indeed: her sufferings and her strength, persistance, might, passion, the ability to bring up a son alone and make sacrifices for him, to feel hurt and to still give love back, her restlessness and her unlucky fate when it came to matters of the heart.
The one line that resonates with me the most, from the whole programme, is that writing is often the action of taking a pen and scraping it along the scar until you reach ‘that point’; ‘the point’being the exact word or phrase the writer in you is searching for. I can relate to this and I’m sure so can many other writers too. It was said to me a few years ago: ‘ writing is often like chewing razor blades’ and ‘the best work lies in your deepest pain.’ I know that whenever I put my pen down I should just carry on writing, not walk away, even when I’m in a flood of tears.
Nabila Jameel 